David Flick                                  What Were They Thinking?     The Illinois Baptist State Assembly (IBSA) is to be commended for rejecting the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message as their sole confession of faith.[1] The IBSA's 97th annual meeting was held Nov. 5-6 in Maryville, a St. Louis suburb. Messengers voted on the six faith statements -- the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message; its revisions in 1963, 1998 and 2000; the Philadelphia Confession of Faith (1742); and the New Hampshire Confession of Faith (1833).[2]     What were the messengers of the IBSA thinking? Who were they trying to appease? Rather than having the courage to simply reject the 2KBF&M, they went to the grab bag and dragged out four confessions that nobody uses anymore. There probably isn't a single church in the entire IBSA that has ever used the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, or the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message. All of these confessions are relics of the distant past. Did the messengers somehow think that some churches might begin using these ancient confessions? I doubt it.     As I see it, the reason they added the relics of the ancient past was to appease those who opposed the 2KBF&M. Since they knew there was a significant number who opposed the 2KBF&M, they went for a grand compromise and grabbed up a bunch of non-used confessions and threw them into the mix under the ruse of "building a consensus."[3] By the very definition of the word, "consensus,"[4] it is utterly impossible to build such when there are six confessions from which to choose. How does one build a consensus from six different confessions of faith? The only way a consensus could possibly have been achieved was for the IBSA to settle on a single confession of faith. What they achieved was anything but a consensus.     It is commendable that the IBSA disallowed the 2KBF&M to be the sole confession of faith. However, they would have done themselves a favor by emulating the Texas Baptists. The Texas Baptists (BGCT) had the courage to reject the 2KBF&M and they did it without attempting to compromise with the fundamantalists. In my opinion, the IBSA is worse off now than they were before. Not only do they have the 2KBF&M to contend with, they have at least five other confessions for the good Baptists of Illinois to have to choose from. Three of which will never be considered by any church in the state of Illinois. How many churches in the state will ever consider consider the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, or the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message? What were they thinking? What were they thinking? _____________________ [1] Associated Baptist Press article, November 7, 2003, "2000 Baptist Faith and Message rejected as only faith statement for Illinois Baptists" [2] Ibid: [3] By affirming all six faith statements, the IBSA will build consensus among its member churches, said Lanny Faulkner, director of missions of Central Baptist Association. Faulkner was one of two messengers who presented a motion at the IBSA's 2001 annual meeting to affirm the six faith statements. [4] "consensus" = "An opinion or position reached by a group as a whole" (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition) ------------      (This article was written for  BaptistLife.Com Discussion Forums)